


Judge Lu at Work: Murder in Junyi

by Valiowk



Category: Three Kingdoms History & Adaptations - All Media Types
Genre: Cold Food Powder, Discussion of historical drug use and misuse, Five Minerals Powder, Gen, À la Robert Hans van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-02-09 11:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1981671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valiowk/pseuds/Valiowk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A murder mystery <i>à la</i> Robert Hans van Gulik’s <i>Judge Dee</i> mysteries, starring Lu Xun’s grandson and Lu Kang’s son Lu Yun and his assistant Dai Yuan, set when Lu Yun served as magistrate of Junyi county.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cover Image

**Author's Note:**

> This story is written in the style of Robert Hans van Gulik’s _Judge Dee_ mysteries, in particular, his short story collection _Judge Dee at Work_. van Gulik adopts the _gong’an_ 公案 fiction custom of including Ming dynasty anachronisms; I have attempted to faithfully reproduce the life and times of the Western Jin dynasty.
> 
> For the convenience of readers who know Chinese, I have included Chinese characters for names and keywords. Fictional names are indicated in blue.
> 
>  **Warning:** There is discussion of historical drug use and misuse in the story. The story has been rated for Teen And Up Audiences out of caution.
> 
> My heartfelt thanks to 雁飞云罗, swj2008cs and lccs for their help and encouragement in planning and writing this story!

#  **《大晋陸公案》之《陸公辦案：浚儀案》**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cover image is modified from a stone-carved portrait of Lu Yun in Suzhou (<http://www.zjlib.net.cn/pics/imgshow.asp?id=27024>). The background text is a rubbing of a stone reproduction of Lu Yun’s ‘Spring Festival model handwriting’ 春節帖 (<http://www.cadal.zju.edu.cn/WebService/images/books/06100013/00000172.jpg>).


	2. Sketch Map of the Region around Junyi

It is common for a river to have more than one name. Occasionally, the stretch referred to by a name may overlap partially with the stretch referred to by another. To avoid confusion, I have mostly referred to each stretch by the label it receives in the _Historical Atlas of China_ 《中國歷史地圖集》, Western Jin period, upon which the sketch map is based. In reality, some adjacent stretches may receive the same name. All the rivers flow to the east.


	3. Murder in Junyi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Judge Lu was a historical person. His full name was Lu Yun 陸雲, his style Shilong 士龍, and he lived from AD 262 to 303. His brother Lu Ji 陸機 and he are celebrated as consummate poets of the Western Jin 西晋 dynasty. His biography in the _Book of Jin_ 《晋書》 states that he was an excellent administrator, beloved by the populace, who made portraits in memory of him after he had left his post, and his subordinates, who brought his body back to Qinghe 清河—the fief over which he had last been administrator—for burial after his death during the War of the Eight Princes 八王之亂.
> 
> Dai Yuan 戴淵, styled Ruosi 若思, was also a historical person. He lived from AD 271 to 322, and was a renowned general of the Jin dynasty.
> 
> This case occurred in AD 293, when Judge Lu had just begun serving in his first independent official post—magistrate 令 of Junyi 浚儀 (modern-day Kaifeng 開封), an important county 縣 around 150 kilometres east of the capital Luoyang 洛陽.

‘I fear that your father, the Grand Administrator 太守 of Guiji 會稽, will reproach me when I write to the Dai family that instead of recommending you for high office, I assented to your request to be a mere officer of my tribunal, Ruosi!’ Judge Lu remarked to his companion in the horse carriage.

‘Father will be so thankful to you, Shilong, for watching over me that he wouldn’t dream of requesting more,’ Dai Yuan chuckled. ‘Besides, who in the Southland 江東 would dare to offend a member of the Lu clan?’

‘Barely days ago, Elder Brother was regaling my daughter with an account of how he valiantly recovered his possessions from bandits,’ the judge retorted wryly.

Dai Yuan snorted. ‘A greatly embellished tale!’

‘Admittedly.’ Judge Lu grinned, recalling his and his wife’s mirth at hearing his brother incorporate details from their grandfather’s and father’s experiences as generals. His voice grew tender. ‘I wonder how my wife and daughters are. I’m grateful to be promoted to magistrate of Junyi, however, I wish I didn’t have to leave the capital just after my wife gave birth to our second daughter. Well, I can comfort myself that the Thoughtful Prince of Chen 陳思王 spent a couple of years in Junyi when he was enfeoffed here.’ A consummate literatus, the judge was a keen admirer of Cao Zhi 曹植[1], the most outstanding poet of the Jian’an 建安 era[2].

‘Shiheng 士衡 will ensure that your family is well taken care of until Elder Sister-in-law[3] is well enough to be reunited with you,’ Dai Yuan reassured him.

‘Arf!’ the hound seated in Judge Lu’s lap barked. It had stuck its head out of a window for the majority of the journey from Luoyang, so that the only part of its head which was visible to the judge and Dai Yuan at the moment was the yellow ear of its otherwise black coat.

‘See, Yellow Ear 黄耳 agrees!’ Dai Yuan continued.

‘Aye, I’m at ease leaving them in Elder Brother’s care,’ Judge Lu acknowledged, stroking the hound’s head. ‘Speaking of which, when are you going to settle down with a family?’

‘Arf!’ Yellow Ear barked again.

‘See, Yellow Ear agrees!’ The judge mimicked Dai Yuan’s previous words. ‘You’re already twenty-three[4].’

Dai Yuan frowned. One of the reasons he had not gone home for some time was to avoid being posed this question by his father yet again. Fortunately, he was interrupted from having to explain his considerations by the coachman’s words.

‘Your Honour, one can see the city wall of Junyi ahead,’ the coachman announced.

Dai Yuan momentarily lifted the curtain separating the occupants of the carriage from the coachman to let Judge Lu and himself view the landscape ahead. Perceiving Dai Yuan’s reluctance to continue with the topic under discussion, the judge decided to change the subject. ‘During the Warring States 戰國 period, this was Daliang 大梁, the capital of the state of Wei 魏. In the twenty-second year of King Zheng of Qin 秦王政[5], the Qin general Wang Jian’s 王翦 son Wang Ben 王賁 diverted the Yellow River 黄河 and the upper reach of the Hong Canal 鴻溝—now the upper reach of the Bian Canal 汴渠—to flood Daliang, destroying the city after three months. Wei Jia 魏假, the King of Wei surrendered; thus was Wei conquered,’ Judge Lu narrated. Being wellborn, Dai Yuan would be as conversant with the history he had recounted as him, but the judge’s purpose had been achieved: Dai Yuan’s smile was back. Judge Lu observed that the curtain was flapping more than usual after Dai Yuan had lowered it. Apparently, Dai Yuan was not the only person waiting expectantly for the judge to proceed to the parts of history with which he was not so familiar!

‘Arf!’

‘That’s the sign to continue,’ Dai Yuan teased, having perceived Judge Lu’s glance and throwing an equally knowing gaze at the curtain—the steady ride had started to become bumpy.

Raising his voice for the benefit of the coachman, the judge continued, ‘Over the ruins of Daliang, the Han 漢 dynasty established the county of Junyi. During the reign of Emperor Ping 平帝 of Han[6], the dykes of the Yellow River and the Bian Canal were breached. For more than sixty years, several tens of counties in the vicinity were affected by floods, until during the reign of Emperor Ming 明帝 of Han[7], the hydraulic engineer Wang Jing 王景 repaired the flood control systems, first of the Junyi Canal 浚儀渠, then of the Yellow River and the Bian Canal. This was one of the greatest achievements in hydraulic engineering of the Han Dynasty. Since then, the Yellow River has been under control for more than two centuries, and if fortune favours, will be for centuries to come. …’

Judge Lu related anecdotes concerning the county to be under his administration as the carriage approached the west gate of the city. ‘… Although Junyi is not even the seat of government of a commandry 郡 now, its location at a crossroads of land and water makes it ideal for commerce. It will surely be a flourishing metropolis again in the fu—’

A clamour interrupted the judge’s prediction. Drawing back the curtain covering a window of the carriage, Judge Lu and Dai Yuan witnessed a crowd armed with farming tools engaged in a vicious fracas.

‘Halt!’ Dai Yuan ordered the coachman. Lifting his sword, he informed the judge, ‘I’ll break up the brawl.’

‘Don’t,’ Judge Lu opposed as Dai Yuan was about to exit the carriage. ‘Continue on. At full speed!’

The judge’s perplexing command caused the coachman to hesitate. ‘Doesn’t Your Honour intend to intervene?’

‘The city gate isn’t far ahead. There are guards there,’ Judge Lu pithily explained.

As the coachman hastened the horse, the judge elucidated, ‘Ruosi, I have confidence in your ability with the blade. However, if you, a stranger, were to attempt to break up the scuffle, you would only draw the ire of the throng and make yourself a new target, without achieving your objective. My edict of appointment is even more useless in dealing with illiterate peasants. The guards of the city gate have neither your skill nor my rank, but the sight of their uniforms will make the mob afraid and scatter!’

‘Arf!’

*

Having signed the receipt for the tribunal seal, inspected the tribunal and called the roll, Judge Lu and Dai Yuan were reviewing documents in the magistrate’s private office behind the courtroom when an officer announced himself.

‘Your Honour, this subordinate is a constable 游徼 of Xinli 新里 village, named Wei Luo 魏羅. There was a fight outside the west gate. The guards and I arrested the culprits, who have been delivered to the jail warden,’ the constable reported, presenting the judge with a written account of the altercation in tidy clerical script on a bamboo slip. Xinli village was the village to the southwest of the city.

‘How is public order in Xinli village?’ Judge Lu enquired while reading the slip.

‘Please rest assured that clashes of this scale are rare, Your Honour,’ Wei Luo stated. He paused, then continued, ‘Recently, there’s been another bunch of lowlifes going around harassing attractive women. We constables are keeping an eye out for them.’

The judge nodded in acknowledgement. ‘That’s good.’

‘Arf!’

Wei Luo looked appraisingly at Yellow Ear, who was seated by Judge Lu’s desk. ‘Your Honour has an excellent hound!’

‘Feel free to pat him, but don’t praise him too much or he’ll be spoiled,’ the judge jested. Having finished reading the slip, he placed it at the top of a tall stack of documents on his desk.

Dai Yuan gazed at the height of the pile, then muttered, ‘It seems we’ll be up to our necks in work for at least the next half a month! I was hoping to tour the official river crossing nearby, where the Battle of Guandu 官渡之戰[8] was fought.’ He inwardly cursed the deceased former magistrate, who had left behind numerous affairs in disarray.

‘Don’t you go running off without me!’ Judge Lu quipped. ‘I’d like to visit Bolangsha 博浪沙 too.’ Bolangsha was the location where the early Han dynasty strategist and statesman Zhang Liang 張良 had attempted to assassinate the First Emperor of Qin in 218 BC.

Perceiving the judge to be affable, Wei Luo stepped back to speak to him after patting Yellow Ear. ‘I see Your Honour is a lover of history. I’ve always felt fortunate to have been born amidst locations of historic significance. When Your Honour has finished this work, the time will be just right to visit the official river crossing. A ferryman who services the nearest river crossing just south of the city, Gao Shi 高世, has brought his boat out of town at the moment, but should be back around half a month from now. He’s pleasant, well-known for his honesty and charges very reasonable fares.’

‘Not just one ferryman services that river crossing, I would suppose?’ Judge Lu asked. ‘Do the townsfolk have to use the next river crossing for now?’

‘Ah… Another ferryman, Wang Ye 王業, also services that river crossing. He’s the opposite of Gao Shi, however—bad-tempered and charges exorbitant rates, hence the populace usually hires him only when Gao Shi is unavailable,’ the constable responded. ‘I would suggest Your Honour to take Gao Shi’s boat to the official river crossing: it would make for a more enjoyable experience. The river crossing is in my village; I’d be sure to inform Your Honour when Gao Shi is back.’

The judge thanked Wei Luo for his enthusiastic recommendation, then dismissed him. After the constable had departed, Judge Lu’s expression transformed into one of concern.

Dai Yuan sighed. ‘It seems half a month was an underestimate.’

‘Why do you say so?’ the judge queried.

‘The constables and guards can be entrusted to stop scuffles and harassment, but dealing with overpricing is surely the magistrate’s personal responsibility,’ Dai Yuan replied impishly.

‘You’re worthy of being taught, young man!’ Judge Lu laughed. He finished the letter he had started writing and inserted it into a long bamboo canister. ‘Someone has a task to accomplish even before us!’

*

Thirteen days later, Judge Lu was rudely awoken during twilight before sunrise on a well-deserved weekend[9] by the urgent knocking of a guard at his door.

‘Your Honour, the ferryman Gao Shi was found dead not far downstream at the sluice gate at the intersection of the Bian Canal and Langdang Canal 蒗蕩渠 at dawn!’ the guard reported.

‘Get the coroner, two guards and Dai Yuan to assemble in the front courtyard,’ the judge swiftly commanded.

Judge Lu speedily dressed and proceeded to the courtyard. A lad wearing an open-topped hood, his hair twisted into two knots—placing him at around fourteen years old—, stood next to the guards. Presumably, he had reported the discovery of Gao Shi’s corpse. As the judge and his subordinates exited the tribunal, Judge Lu requested the youngster’s name and details of the circumstances under which the body had been found.

‘My name is Li Shui 李水. The body was discovered by the sluice gate supervisor. It had been hooked by the nails of the sluice gate. The sluice gate supervisor called my father, who is a ferryman at the river crossing there, to the scene. My father recognised Gao Shi because of their common occupation. He had been injured at the back of his head,’ the youth described.

The judge and his subordinates hurried to the nearest river crossing. ‘That’s Gao Shi’s boat!’ a guard, Lin Yan 林彦 indicated.

‘Where’s your boat?’ Judge Lu asked Li Shui. Only two boats were present at the river crossing—the other presumably belonging to Wang Ye.

‘It’s faster for me to run than to row upstream,’ Li Shui replied. ‘Father ferried me across the river; I ran the remainder of the way to the tribunal. I thought the other ferryman, Wang Ye, would be around, but he isn’t.’

‘Wang Ye lives in the neighbourhood,’ Lin Yan volunteered. ‘Whenever Gao Shi had been hired and Wang Ye wasn’t around, I’d look for Wang Ye near his home. I’ll go to find him.’

‘I’ll go along,’ Dai Yuan added.

While Lin Yan and Dai Yuan sought Wang Ye, the judge examined Gao Shi’s boat. Each end of the boat held a large storage compartment, one of which was fastened with a lock. Judge Lu surveyed the unlocked compartment. It contained maintenance tools, a couple of unmade blankets, a neatly-folded change of clothes, toiletries that had been pushed askew by the blankets and a small round fan decorated with a painting and caption next to the toiletries. The judge did not locate the key for the other compartment. He regretted that Yellow Ear was absent and hence could not assist the investigation: the hound’s penchant for picking up objects to present to people might finally prove useful!

A chilly breeze blew, and Judge Lu sneezed. He wondered whether some blankets had been taken away—two thin blankets did not seem sufficient for the end of spring[10]!

The judge turned his attention to the fan. It depicted a woman strolling near the intersection of two rivers during the day. The accompanying text read, in semi-cursive script:

生生之所常厚  
洵美之所不渝

 _Eternally sustaining life,  
_ _True beauty never altering._

Judge Lu’s brow knit upon recognising the lines to be a quotation from the _Three Capitals Rhapsody_ 《三都賦》, a rhyme prose by his contemporary Zuo Si 左思, which described the three kingdoms succeeding the Han dynasty and preceding the Jin dynasty, and their capitals. When the judge’s brother had first heard word that Zuo Si was composing this rhyme prose, he had written to Judge Lu, ‘When that country bumpkin 傖父[11] finishes his rhapsody, all it’ll be good for is sealing jugs of wine.’ Later, when the magnum opus was completed, the brothers did not hesitate to admit that they had been mistaken. Nevertheless, the judge felt a twinge of annoyance whenever he saw the work—his brother had abandoned plans to pen a rhyme prose on the same subject after reading Zuo Si’s masterpiece, and would not change his mind despite Judge Lu’s wheedling.

Flipping the fan over, the judge saw that there was another painting, this time of a woman roaming among mountains. The accompanying text read:

載羨門與儷游  
永覽周乎八極

_A fairy with me wandering,  
Beholding always vistas great._

Like the other caption, it was a quotation from another rhyme prose ascribed to a famous poet. The size of the fan made it more decorative than practical. Judge Lu put away the fan between the layers of his clothing, where it was held up by his belt.

At this moment, Lin Yan and Dai Yuan returned with a surly man, who groused, ‘I was on a winning streak when you dragged me away!’

The guards were about to rebuke the ferryman for his unbridled behaviour in the magistrate’s presence, but they were anticipated by Dai Yuan, who simply reported, ‘Your Honour, these subordinates have brought the ferryman Wang Ye.’

Wang Ye hurriedly paid obeisance to the judge. Judge Lu noticed that the ferryman’s eye lingered on Li Shui, whom he presumably recognised.

The judge cut to the chase. ‘Gao Shi’s body was discovered at the sluice gate downstream.’

Wang Ye gaped. Judge Lu discerned a fleeting expression of glee, which was promptly replaced with sombreness.

The judge instructed the guards to keep Gao Shi’s boat out of bounds to the public, and Wang Ye to fetch him, the coroner, Dai Yuan and Li Shui to the sluice gate.

‘Were you present at this river crossing yesterday?’ Judge Lu questioned the ferryman while he rowed.

‘Yes, Your Honour,’ Wang Ye cautiously replied.

‘From when until when?’

‘From before sunrise until dusk, Your Honour.’

‘Did you see Gao Shi and his boat yesterday?’

‘No, Your Honour.’

The judge nodded an acknowledgement and allowed the ferryman to return his attention to sculling. Before long, they reached the sluice gate. The corpse had been retrieved from the canal by Li Shui’s father.

The coroner spread the reed mats he had brought with him on the ground and placed the corpse on it. The skin had begun to discolour and wrinkle. Judge Lu’s attention was drawn to the calabash tied to the deceased’s clothes.

After the coroner had washed the corpse clean, he reported to the judge, ‘A male corpse. On the back of the head a wound caused by a large blunt and heavy object, three inches[12] long by three inches broad and three-quarter inches deep. Along the body five punctures each two inches deep and half an inch in diameter. Judging from the state of _rigor mortis_ , dead for at least three watches 更[13].’

The coroner recorded the details on a bamboo slip which he handed to Judge Lu. He added, ‘In this subordinate’s estimation, the wound was caused by a large stone. The punctures match the nails of the sluice gate. Usually, a fresh corpse will sink before surfacing when it bloats, but the deceased floated due to the empty calabash attached to his body.’

The judge mulled over this information, then commented, ‘If the sluice gate had been open, the body would have been swept downstream to either Weishi 尉氏 or Yongqiu 雍丘 county. The magistrate of one is muddleheaded and the other incompetent. Word might not have been delivered to Junyi of the discovery of the corpse.’

Judge Lu posed the sluice gate supervisor and Li Shui’s father some routine questions regarding the time at and state in which the body had been discovered. He learnt that the sluice gate was shut for a few watches every night at this time of the year to channel excess water into the lower reaches of the Bian Canal. He then had the corpse lain in Wang Ye’s boat to be taken back to the river crossing to the south of the city.

As the judge watched the sluice gate fade out of view from the boat, he retrieved the fan from his clothing and compared the painting with the intersection of two rivers with it. He noticed that Wang Ye had also turned his eye to the fan.

Seeing that Judge Lu expected him to speak up, the ferryman offered, ‘It’s not a good representation, Your Honour. The intersection of rivers doesn’t look like that.’

The judge privately thought that Wang Ye was carping, given that the artist was obviously a dilettante. ‘Have you seen this fan before?’ he asked.

‘No, Your Honour,’ the ferryman answered, confused.

When the boat returned to the river crossing upstream, Judge Lu saw several people waiting to cross the river, as well as an elderly man with dishevelled hair, wearing only a single layer of clothing, who requested the guards to allow him on Gao Shi’s boat to look for items. Upon viewing Gao Shi’s body, he gasped and let out several cries.

A neatly dressed man by his side consoled him. ‘Master, this is not the right time to weep and be depressed.’

The elderly man endeavoured to control his emotions. The judge directed the coroner and Lin Yan to bring the corpse back to the mortuary, then dismissed Wang Ye to ferry passengers. Several people were reluctant to step aboard a boat that had just been carrying a corpse, but the need to cross the river eventually won out. Judge Lu stepped towards the elderly man and enquired, ‘May I know your identity and what you are looking for, old sir?’

‘My name is Bian Pei 邊佩, Your Honour. I’m a retired official. I hired Gao Shi to sell a valuable curio on my behalf. Gao Shi should have brought back several bolts of silk after completing the transaction,’ the elderly man described. Grain and silk had become a medium of exchange during the Three Kingdoms 三國 period as a counter against hyperinflation, and the practice had continued into the Jin dynasty.

The coroner had not found the key for the other storage compartment on the deceased, hence the judge bade Dai Yuan to cut the lock with his dagger. The compartment was empty!

‘Who knew of Gao Shi’s errand?’ Judge Lu asked Bian Pei.

‘I was afraid that he might be hijacked, so I instructed him to keep the matter under wraps. I suppose the only people who might know his errand are his family,’ Bian Pei replied.

The judge enquired Gao Shi’s address, then notified Bian Pei that he would visit the retired official later in the day. He dismissed the other guard and set off for Gao Shi’s home to the west of the city with Dai Yuan.

‘Let’s review a possible sequence of events,’ Judge Lu said to Dai Yuan after he had summarised his findings on Gao Shi’s boat. ‘Gao Shi returned to Junyi shortly after Wang Ye was done for the day. As there were several valuable bolts of silk on the boat, he elected to spend the night on the boat instead of going home. The murderer killed him with a large stone, took the key for the storage compartment and dumped the body into the canal, then removed the blankets that had been spattered with blood and shoved the remaining blankets into the unlocked compartment. He then took the bolts of silk and relocked the compartment, so that nothing would appear amiss at first glance. Unfortunately for him, he had an oversight. For the rest of the night, the corpse floated downstream to the river intersection, where it was caught by the nails of the sluice gate and discovered at dawn.’

‘Wang Ye’s neighbour said something peculiar when Lin Yan and I went in search of him,’ Dai Yuan responded. ‘He told us that Wang Ye’s pocket had jingled quite somewhat when he left his house early in the morning, and guessed that Wang Ye might have gone to gamble. He added that he didn’t understand what Wang Ye was thinking—when the neighbour returned home late at twilight yesterday, he passed by Wang Ye hurriedly repairing his boat, intending to do as much business as possible before Gao Shi returned. When Wang Ye returned home shortly after, he was gloomy, and the neighbour thought it was because he hadn’t finished repairing the boat and it would affect his business the next day. However, when Wang Ye left his house this morning, he did not head for the river crossing, but instead immediately headed in the opposite direction.’

‘A part of Wang Ye’s boat looked hastily repaired, but I think it should last at least a day or two?’ the judge queried.

‘Indeed,’ Dai Yuan confirmed.

The implication of the neighbour’s words was clear: Wang Ye had lied when he had claimed not to have seen Gao Shi’s boat the previous day. ‘Strange,’ Judge Lu commented. ‘Did you see Wang Ye’s expression when I informed him of Gao Shi’s death?’

Dai Yuan paused in thought. ‘You mean, if Wang Ye killed Gao Shi, he would not reveal a momentary expression of jubilation when he heard that Gao Shi was dead?’

‘Yes. Of course, we cannot discount the possibility that Wang Ye’s facial expressions were carefully planned,’ the judge replied. ‘In any case, the neighbour’s words don’t affect our deduction that Gao Shi returned to Junyi at dusk or later.

‘Something puzzles me, though,’ Judge Lu continued. ‘The only people who would ordinarily be in a position to know that Gao Shi had returned are those living in the vicinity of the canal, and even then, only a small portion who happened to pass by the canal extremely late. Since Gao Shi does not live there, my guess is that they were acquainted with him though his occupation, which, according to Wei Luo, he performed excellently. Hence, apart from his competitor Wang Ye, it’s difficult to find a motive why one of them would murder and rob Gao Shi. But if the murderer is someone who does not live near the canal, why would he pass by it at night?’

The judge and Dai Yuan discussed the case as they made their way to Gao Shi’s home. Outside the door, they heard the sobbing of a woman. The news of Gao Shi’s death had already made its way to his neighbourhood. Judge Lu’s knock was answered by a teenage girl who had dark circles under her eyes.

‘I am the magistrate,’ the judge introduced himself. ‘I am here to speak with Gao Shi’s family.’

The girl paid obeisance to Judge Lu and led him and Dai Yuan into the utilitarianly furnished house. She addressed the weeping woman, whose hands were clasped over her bosom and who looked to be in her mid-twenties, ‘Elder Sister Xuanxuan 玄玄, I’m going back to take care of my younger brother. Do take care of yourself.’

The judge reflected that uneducated parents could sometimes choose exceedingly literary names for their children by coincidence—the woman’s parents had probably intended the meaning ‘blackie’, but it also had the meaning ‘arcane and profound’. Judge Lu doubted that ‘arcane and profound’ was any more faithful a description than ‘blackie’ of the woman, who was in fact fair and good-looking even lacking jewellery, but the thought was so trivial as to be transitory.

The woman knelt before the judge. ‘This commoner Madam Gao-Liang 高梁氏 pays her respects to Your Honour. Your Honour, you must investigate how my husband died!’ she cried.

Judge Lu bade Gao Shi’s wife to rise. ‘I’m sorry for bothering you so soon after the tragedy, madam. I’ll certainly do my utmost to investigate the circumstances of your husband’s death. Do you know why your husband was out of town?’

‘The retired official Mister Bian hired him to sell a curio on his behalf,’ Madam Gao-Liang answered slowly, fatigued by the events of the morning. After a pause, she added, ‘Mister Bian promised him a considerable portion of the money as payment. My husband said that it was too much and that he had told Mister Bian so, but was unsuccessful in letting Mister Bian lower the fee promised. He was thinking of speaking to Mister Bian again about the matter after he returned.’

The judge reflected that raising the issue with Bian Pei again would certainly be unsuccessful. If word spread that Bian Pei had changed his mind, the retired official would lose respect and become a laughing stock among his peers for breaking his word. Although he had retired, a political enemy could still seize the opportunity to accuse him of bullying an honest peasant.

‘Who else did your husband tell about his errand?’ Judge Lu enquired.

‘No one else, Your Honour. My parents-in-law have passed away, and my husband is an only son. His sisters are married, so he lives with just me.’

‘Did he have any enemies?’

Gao Shi’s wife pursed her lips. After a protracted pause, she responded, ‘I wouldn’t call him an enemy, but it’s well-known that my husband’s agreeable attitude and reasonable fares indirectly make it difficult for Wang Ye to do business. I also hear that Wang Ye has wanted to remarry for some time, but no family is willing to marry their daughter to him after they compare him with my husband.’

The judge extracted the fan from his clothing. ‘This fan was found among your husband’s belongings.’

Madam Gao-Liang stared at the fan for several seconds, then clasped it tightly. ‘He remembered me mentioning that I liked these decorated fans and bought me an ornament for once, despite maintaining that they weren’t practical!’ The tears that she had controlled with effort welled up again and her breath grew laboured as she traced the paintings with her fingers.

‘What kinds of articles did Gao Shi usually get you?’ Judge Lu queried.

‘Kitchen utensils, sewing equipment… Once, my washboard suffered from wear and tear and it took longer than usual to wash clothes. He bought me a new washboard even without me telling him about it…’ Gao Shi’s wife covered her mouth in anguish.

The judge decided that it was best to be blunt. ‘I’m afraid the fan wasn’t intended as a present from Gao Shi to you, madam.’

‘What does Your Honour mean?’ Madam Gao-Liang asked, confused.

‘From your furnishings and the items Gao Shi gave you, it’s obvious that he was a pragmatic man. Even on the off chance that he were to give you a decorated fan, he would have chosen a large fan, which could be put to practical use,’ Judge Lu elucidated.

Gao Shi’s wife mulled over the judge’s words. Her body swerved from dizziness. ‘Your Honour means, the fan was dropped by the person who killed my husband?’ she exclaimed upon regaining her balance, hurriedly returning the fan to Judge Lu. ‘I thought the fan was a present from my husband. If I’d known…’

‘It’s only natural to treasure what one believes to be a gift from a person to one. I apologise again for causing you additional grief during your period of mourning. My condolences,’ the judge consoled Gao Shi’s wife, then took his leave. Seeing her run a hand over the small of her back, he added, ‘Please take care of yourself and see a physician if necessary.’

‘Thank you for your concern, Your Honour. I’ve had these pains before; I know how to relieve them.’ Madam Gao-Liang responded as she saw Judge Lu and Dai Yuan to the door.

Walking away from the house, the judge and Dai Yuan heard sobs resuming. Through a window of the adjacent house, Judge Lu saw the girl who had been consoling Gao Shi’s wife gazing anxiously out of the window at Gao Shi’s house, a toddler in her arms. The girl lowered her eyes upon noticing the judge’s gaze.

‘I hope Madam Gao-Liang heeds our advice,’ Judge Lu sighed.

The judge and Dai Yuan proceeded to Bian Pei’s residence at the east of the city. They were met by the man who had accompanied Bian Pei earlier in the day, who introduced himself as the steward. As the steward led them into the house, Judge Lu glimpsed Bian Pei strolling in the garden bare-chested.

It was not the first time the judge had seen officials strolling bare-chested since coming north. Nevertheless, he asked, ‘It’s chilly. Is it all right for the old sir to take a stroll like that?’

‘Master consumed Cold Food Powder 寒食散. Strolling in this manner is one of the rules when taking the powder. Cold Food Powder is heating; Master says that he doesn’t feel cold,’ the steward explained.

Judge Lu and Dai Yuan waited for a considerable time in the parlour, which was sparingly but elegantly decorated with hanging scroll paintings with Bian Pei’s signature. The judge deemed the paintings excellent, but found the room slightly nippy. Finally, Bian Pei appeared, having put on a layer of attire. The steward served a flask of hot wine to Bian Pei and Judge Lu each, as well as a few dishes suitable to be eaten cold to Bian Pei alone.

‘I contracted a febrile disease a while ago; this is part of the treatment regimen,’ Bian Pei explained to the judge, indicating the dishes.

‘I came to enquire about Gao Shi’s errand,’ Judge Lu stated.

‘Twenty-two days ago, I received word that the residence of some relatives in Ye 鄴 had been burnt down in a fire. They managed to rescue a few valuables, but those are sufficient only to tide them over for three months, not to rebuild. The Martial Emperor 武帝[14] once bestowed upon me a tree of corals for my achievements. A retired colleague of mine from Suiling 睢陵 downstream along the Sui River 睢水 admired it greatly and always said that he would be willing to pay an excellent price for it, hence I decided to sell it to him. At that time, I had just taken Cold Food Powder to treat my disease. Because my trusted steward was in charge of tending to me while I recuperated, he could not go to Suiling. I hired Gao Shi because of his honesty—I needn’t fear that he’d secretly keep some bolts of silk for himself. Moreover, his mother used to be a weaver, so he had some familiarity with silk quality and wouldn’t be taken in easily,’ Bian Pei related while eating and drinking, apparently unconcerned about the impropriety of his actions in front of the magistrate. ‘If the missing silk isn’t recovered within a month, I’ll have to sell some heirlooms. I fear I won’t be able to get a good price for them at that time because of a shortage of time.’

‘I heard from Gao Shi’s wife that you promised him a considerable portion of the silk,’ the judge remarked.

‘It has to do with how I knew his honesty,’ Bian Pei elucidated. He finished another cup of wine. ‘When I returned to Junyi upon retirement, I took his boat downstream from the official river crossing. By accident, my housekeeper and I forgot to take the chest containing the tree of corals with us after disembarking from his boat. When Gao Shi discovered the lapse, he immediately came to return the chest. At that time, I wanted to reward him, but he would not accept remuneration. Since there would be some money left behind after sending my relatives in Ye what they need, I promised him a fifth of the value of the tree of corals for helping me in such an important manner once and again.’

Judge Lu was astonished by the enormity of the sum promised to Gao Shi, but did not show it. Instead, he withdrew the fan from his clothing and asked, ‘I found this fan on Gao Shi’s boat. Might you recognise it?’

Bian Pei studied the fan. ‘I’m afraid not. Hm, this is a quotation from the _Wei Capital Rhapsody_ 《魏都賦》, isn’t it?’ Seeing the judge nod, he commented, ‘The paintings are decent for an amateur, but the artist could have been more careful to let the pictures and text match. If the painter wanted to depict a woman in Ye, then there should only be one river, the Zhang River 漳水. As for this side of the fan, the fairy could have been painted at the top of a mountain, so that she would be able to see in all directions.’

A thought occurred to him. ‘Your Honour believes this fan to be related to Gao Shi’s murder?’

‘Yes,’ Judge Lu answered.

Bian Pei sighed heavily as he returned the fan. ‘Heaven and Earth are indifferent. For them, the myriad entities are like dogs of grass [which are made for sacrifices and subsequently discarded]. My sons are in various cities; they have a bright future ahead. There would be nothing to regret if I were to pass away of illness. Gao Shi, on the other hand, hadn’t even had an heir yet.’

Recognising the quotation to be from the _Laozi_ 《老子》[15] , the judge consoled him, ‘Heaven and Earth let the myriad entities express their nature. They neither interfere nor create, so that the myriad entities spontaneously order and regulate each other.’

Bian Pei was surprised by the Daoist nature of Judge Lu’s words. ‘I have heard that although Your Honour is a Confucian scholar, you attempt to avoid rolling up your sleeves and enforcing your will through violence [as those with the highest understanding of ritual do when their instructions are not heeded],’ he said, borrowing another quote from the _Laozi_.

‘I would like to try to instruct not by forcing others to follow, but by making the best use of their nature and the principles that order their lives,’ the judge replied.

Bian Pei and Judge Lu continued in this vein for a while, discoursing how Daoist concepts could be integrated into the Confucian framework. Perceiving that Bian Pei was done with his meal, the steward removed the dishes and replaced the flask of hot wine, which the retired official continued to frequently pour for himself. The judge had only consumed one cup of wine.

‘When I was still in office, being far from the capital, I envied the literati of the capital in the Zhengshi 正始 era[16], who discussed these arcane and profound philosophical themes 玄遠 regularly. It’s been some time since I had such a stimulating conversation. No wonder that this was the Zhengshi literati’s greatest joy and notion of a heavenly experience!’ Bian Pei sighed appreciatively when Judge Lu took his leave.

Dai Yuan, on the other hand, let out a sigh of relief at being able to leave Bian Pei’s residence—the conversation had been progressing beyond his ken. As the steward saw the judge and him out of the house, Dai Yuan enquired of the steward, ‘Might you know where the ruins of the Yi Gate 夷門 are?’

‘Yes. I’ll draw you a map,’ the steward volunteered.

While the steward went to retrieve a writing brush and cloth, Dai Yuan told Judge Lu, ‘The story of the Lord of Xinling 信陵君 and Hou Ying 侯嬴 is one of the favourite historical stories of my younger brother Ah Miao 邈. I must describe the ruins of the Yi Gate to him in great detail after I’ve found them!’ The Lord of Xinling was a prince of the state of Wei during the Warring States period. Hearing of a wise seventy-year-old recluse named Hou Ying who worked as a guard of the Yi Gate, the east gate of Daliang, he made an effort to strike up a friendship with the recluse. Later, in 257 BC, when the state of Zhao 趙 was under siege by the state of Qin and the King of Wei refused to let his army, which had already proceeded to Ye in the north, aid Zhao out of fear of Qin, Hou Ying suggested to the Lord of Xinling a plan to obtain the king's tiger tally[17] to command the Wei army to help Zhao. Consequently, the Qin army withdrew and Zhao was rescued. However, because he had infuriated the King of Wei, the Lord of Xinling could not return to Wei. Hou Ying had anticipated this and had told that Lord of Xinling that because he was too old to follow in his army, he would face the north and commit suicide when the Lord of Xinling reached Ye. He kept his word.

The judge inwardly thought that Dai Yuan was similarly to Judge Lu’s elder brother when it came to doting upon younger brothers. Outwardly, he warned, ‘Don’t you dare run off without me!’

After the judge and Dai Yuan had left Bian Pei’s residence, Dai Yuan asked Judge Lu, ‘Is there any truth to the tale about you discussing the _Laozi_ with Wang Bi’s 王弼 ghost?’ Wang Bi was a leading representative of the Zhengshi literati, who had written commentaries to the _Laozi_ , the _Book of Changes_ 《易》 and the _Analects_ 《論語》 when he passed away at the tender age of twenty-four.

‘You’d like to improve your understanding of the ‘arcane and profound’? I can tell you where his grave is. It’s at Yanshi 偃師, near Luoyang. I’ll ask Xi Han 嵇含 to bring you along the next time you’re in Luoyang,’ the judge said. Xi Han was the grandnephew of Xi Kang 嵇康, a leader of the second period of flourishing of ‘arcane and profound thought’ following the Zhengshi era. ‘Wang Bi liked the game of pitch-pot 投壺[18]. Bring a vase and arrows when you visit his grave, and you might be able to talk with him.’

Dai Yuan noticed that Judge Lu had avoided answering the question, but had a suspicion as to the truth of how the judge’s understanding of the ‘arcane and profound’ had improved after arriving in Luoyang—it was a strain of philosophical thought that flourished in the north but not in the south. He did not unmask the yarn that Judge Lu seemed happy to maintain, however, but instead remarked, ‘I didn’t know that you’re skilled in this particular type of elegant discourse[19]! I never saw you or Shiheng at it previously.’

‘Many scholars nowadays are dissolute; I don’t want to join in their fantastic nonsense,’ the judge declared, contemplating the presumptuous literati who formed one of the factions of ‘arcane and profound thought’ then.

Dai Yuan thought that advising him to bring pitch-pot equipment to the grave of Wang Bi in the hope of meeting Wang Bi’s ghost qualified as ‘fantastic nonsense’, but decided that it was forgivable in the form of a joke.

‘Bian Pei’s words are proper, but I’m not sure I can say the same for his actions,’ Dai Yuan opined. ‘I can’t help but suspect whether he’s using recuperation as an excuse for bad conduct. He looks fine. Moreover, what’s with him imbibing so much firstly when supposedly convalescing, and secondly when claiming to mourn an acquaintance[20]? That country bumpkin has one of the greatest alcohol capacities I’ve seen! I don’t believe in stubbornly adhering to rules, but it’s nearing the limits of what I can stand.’

‘Hey, why are you picking up Elder Brother’s bad habits? Don’t just pick up my bad habits too!’ Judge Lu exclaimed. He reflected that he should try harder to set a good example for Dai Yuan.

At the same time, he recalled that he too could not abide by several of the manners of Northerners when he first arrived in Luoyang, and wondered if his years in the north were beginning to undermine his strict Confucian upbringing.

‘Didn’t you express interest in meeting Zhou Boren 周伯仁? If you pick on the flaws of every Northerner you encounter, you’ll find fault even with him.’ The judge passed on counsel which he and his brother had received previously. ‘He’s a fine fellow and it’s a pleasure conversing with him, if you ignore the fact that he likes wine too much for his own good. His alcohol capacity is probably even greater than Bian Pei’s.’

‘Got the point,’ Dai Yuan responded in acknowledgement, understanding that he should try to be more open-minded when it came to the north-south divide.

Turning his thoughts back to Gao Shi, he remarked, ‘I’m astounded that Bian Pei promised Gao Shi a fifth of the silks! Hm, is Cold Food Powder expensive?’

‘I don’t know,’ Judge Lu admitted. ‘Perhaps. I’ve heard that several high-ranking officials take it, but it seems to have many side effects. Even the eminent physician Huangfu Mi 皇甫謐 encountered problems when attempting to cure his stroke with it. Why do you ask? Surely you’re not interested in trying it?’

‘Of course not,’ Dai Yuan put the judge’s mind at ease. ‘Though, didn’t He Yan 何晏 say something along the lines of, “Taking Five Minerals Powder 五石散 not only heals illness, it also makes my spirits receptive and lucid?” ’ He Yan was a powerful minister of Wei during the Zhengshi era, before being executed when the Sima 司馬 family took control of the government in a coup d’état. He and Wang Bi were the leading representatives of ‘arcane and profound thought’ during the Zhengshi era. Five Minerals Powder was another name for Cold Food Powder. ‘You saw how Bian Pei idolized the Zhengshi literati. He mentioned that when he hired Gao Shi, he had just been treated for his disease. At that time, he wouldn’t have had much experience with Cold Food Powder. Might he wish to continue using it after feeling its effects?’

Seeing Judge Lu raise a dubious eyebrow, Dai Yuan continued, ‘I know, I know, even if he regretted promising Gao Shi such a large share of the remaining money, it isn’t enough reason to think that he’d resort to killing Gao Shi just because of this. Though, isn’t it also said that some of the side effects of Cold Food Powder use gone wrong are trance-like conditions and fury? Might this instead have caused him to regret his promise and order a servant to rob Gao Shi, in order to take all of the money for himself without affecting his reputation?’

The judge deliberated Dai Yuan’s speculation. ‘I seem to recall that because of Cold Food Powder use gone wrong, Huangfu Mi experienced great grief and resentment and wanted to commit suicide. It seems the powder can have an enormous impact on emotions,’ he contributed.

‘The map!’ he abruptly exclaimed. ‘Let’s see if there’s writing on it. Bian Pei mentioned that his steward would be the first choice candidate for a task of importance.’

Judge Lu and Dai Yuan compared the labels on the map the steward had drawn with the writing on the fan.

‘It’s not at all similar,’ the judge concluded, then jested, ‘Hm, did you enquire the location of the ruins of the Yi Gate for this purpose?’

‘Now you realise?’ Dai Yuan sniggered.

Judge Lu did not believe him in the least, but deemed it fair retaliation for the yarn he had spun earlier about how to draw out a ghost.

‘Ruosi, I’ll go back to the tribunal to get a couple of constables to conduct enquiries and listen out for rumours regarding Gao Shi’s death. Wang Ye should be investigated, but without alerting him that he’s a suspect if possible. Can you do that?’ the judge asked. Seeing Dai Yuan nod assent, Judge Lu added, ‘Perhaps he can give a clue to the question we were considering earlier.’

*

Dai Yuan found Wang Ye repairing his boat again during a temporary lull in business.

‘Sorry for dragging you away from the gambling table earlier. The matter was urgent,’ Dai Yuan apologised.

The ferryman was surprised by Dai Yuan’s goodwill. ‘It’s all right. You were performing your job.’

‘Do you need any assistance repairing the boat?’

Wang Ye raised a questioning eyebrow. ‘Do you know how to?’

‘Give me something to do and we’ll see.’

The ferryman gave Dai Yuan an easy task and kept an eye on his progress.

‘Your boat’s very well designed. This shape’—Dai Yuan said, pointing to a part of the boat—‘helps it cut through the water more quickly while that’—he indicated another part of the boat—‘improves its stability. A perfect balance.’

‘You really do know boats!’ Wang Ye exclaimed, astonished.

‘Gao Shi’s boat has similar customizations. Most of the boats I’ve seen in the north aren’t so well designed—what’s up with that?’

The ferryman let out a look of displeasure. ‘He copied my ideas. I couldn’t forbid him from doing so, could I? At that time, his wife was pregnant, so I told myself to treat it as an early present for the baby’s first month. Unfortunately, the baby was short-lived and passed away even before then.’ His voice became faint. ‘I used to have a child too. He passed away very young because I didn’t have enough money for medicine.’

Changing the topic, Wang Ye continued, ‘Let’s not talk about this. You know boats well. Judging from your accent, you’re a Southerner? Did you come with the magistrate to Junyi?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why did you come here? Surely not to help me repair my boat?’

‘I’ve been drowned in work since I arrived in Junyi. Today was supposed to be a rest day, but I was dragged out in the morning. I finally have an afternoon free, so I was thinking of doing some sightseeing. I’ve been remaining in the city since I came, so I wanted to explore somewhere further away. If I’d two days free, I’d like to visit the official river crossing where the Battle of Guandu was fought, but that’s clearly impossible with only a free afternoon,’ Dai Yuan replied.

‘Yes, to go to the official river crossing upstream, you’d need to depart from here at sunrise, and you’d arrive there around sunset,’ the ferryman added.

‘What about downstream? Is there anywhere closer you could take me?’ Dai Yuan asked.

‘Xiaohuang 小黄 county is downstream,’ Wang Ye said. ‘It may be the commandry seat 郡治, but to be honest, it’s not half as interesting as Junyi.’

‘What if one goes downstream to the Langdang Canal or the Sui River?’ Dai Yuan enquired insistently.

‘Hah, don’t dream of going anywhere interesting in an afternoon. Didn’t the magistrate mention that the magistrates of Weishi and Yongqiu counties don’t do a good job? Once you’re out of Junyi county, the next place halfway decent there are the towns near the river crossings, both of which are about as far from here as the official river crossing. A little further actually, I think.’

‘Oh…’

‘Hm, you’re quite a character,’ Wang Ye assessed. ‘You’re knowledgeable about boats, you know the geography of the area well after being here for less than half a month. Are you just an ordinary officer of the tribunal?’

Dai Yuan deliberated his response. He decided that Shiheng’s story about encountering bandits should charm the ferryman as much as it had Judge Lu’s daughter.

‘I used to be a river pirate captain—’ he began.

‘Moonshine!’ Wang Ye opined, seeing Dai Yuan’s youth.

‘You think just any Southerner knows how to judge the make of a boat? What about the speed with which I got you to follow me out in the morning?’ Dai Yuan rebutted.

The ferryman had to admit that Dai Yuan had a point. ‘I’ll believe you for now. Go on.’

‘I even robbed a son of the Grand Marshal 大司馬 of Wu 吳 Lu Kang 陸抗 before,’ Dai Yuan bragged. ‘Oh, the large draught of his ship!’

‘You didn’t get caught?’ Wang Ye asked, simultaneously curious and sceptical.

‘Strictly speaking, no.’

‘What happened?’

‘We succeeded. On the shore, I sat on the folding chair upon which he’d just been seated minutes ago, laughing at him and directing the other pirates. To his credit as the son of the Grand Marshal, he didn’t begin to curse me, but instead observed me from the ship. He shouted across the water to me, “You have such ability, yet you rob people?!” ’ Dai Yuan vividly narrated.

‘Then?’ The ferryman was hooked.

‘That phrase of praise made me more ashamed than all the condemnation I’d ever received.’ For just a sentence, Dai Yuan’s voice was softer than usual, then regained its volume. ‘So I stupidly repented and returned him his possessions. We became friends, and he said he would write me a letter of recommendation.’

‘And so you ended up becoming an officer of our tribunal? I guess that counts as a recommendation, but I would have thought that he would do more for you.’

‘Oh, he would have written me an excellent recommendation if I’d let him. But to give up a leisurely life for the taxing life of an official immediately—would you be willing to do that?’ Dai Yuan asked.

‘Your story is too amazing. I don’t quite believe it, but I can see your interest in all things potamic is genuine. Do you know how the canals in the area and the Yellow River are controlled?’ Wang Ye asked.

Dai Yuan shook his head. Wang Ye seemed pleased to have discovered a topic about which Dai Yuan was not knowledgeable. ‘The Junyi Canal has weirs—low dams to alter its flow—to prevent flooding,’ the ferryman began. He sketched a diagram with his fingers to indicate its principles. ‘… In addition to dykes, the Bian Canal was deepened and has sluice gates at regular intervals and weirs and dams in critical areas to control water flow and levels. The Yellow River has all of the above; in addition, obstacles were cleared so that it would be able to flow quickly and smoothly to keep sediment suspended and slow down silting. …’

Dai Yuan listened attentively to Wang Ye’s explanation. ‘How do you know all this?’ he asked as the pair finished repairing the boat.

‘You may not believe me either, but the construction official （將作謁者） who fixed the flood control systems together with Wang Jing was my ancestor. His given name…was the same as that of your previous kingdom,’ the ferryman ended softly. In respect of his ancestor, he took care not to mention his ancestor’s given name.

Dai Yuan smiled ironically. ‘It’s all in the past,’ he sighed.

‘My ancestor was a Southerner, so I don’t call Southerners raccoon dogs 貉子[21],’ Wang Ye divulged.

‘Thank you.’

A few persons approached the river crossing earlier than the ferryman had expected.

‘I’ll let you ferry them.’ Dai Yuan took his leave. He’d received the answer he wanted. ‘I’ll come back when I have two days free to go to the official river crossing. The magistrate’s interested in going there too.’

‘Sure. Wait, you said you robbed a son of the Grand Marshal of Wu Lu Kang. The magistrate’s surname is Lu…’ Wang Ye put two and two together as Dai Yuan departed.

‘Same clan!’ Dai Yuan called out over his back.

*

‘Your Honour, no one suspicious was seen in the vicinity of the river crossing at night,’ Wei Luo reported to Judge Lu the following morning. ‘Some think that the murderer was likely Wang Ye—he has the most to benefit from his competitor’s death.’

The judge nodded. If the constables had returned with a list of suspicious persons, he might have been able to narrow down the fan owner by considering their personalities. It was disappointing but not unexpected, however, that the constables had not come back with new clues.

‘Arf!’

‘Yellow Ear!’ Judge Lu and Dai Yuan exclaimed simultaneously upon seeing the hound which had just bounded into the magistrate’s private office. A bamboo canister hung around his neck. The hound halted next to Wei Luo, as though waiting respectfully for its turn to be called.

‘I didn’t see him after the first day. Some of other officers of the tribunal said they thought he’d run off,’ Wei Luo said, giving Yellow Ear a pat.

‘He was away delivering a letter to my elder brother. I have a document to hand to the county commandant 尉, which I was going to ask you to help me pass along on your way out of the tribunal. How about I let Yellow Ear deliver it instead?’ the judge joked, signalling for Yellow Ear to step forth and mimed passing the document to Wei Luo.

Contrary to Judge Lu’s wishes, the hound instead picked up the fan on the judge’s desk and turned around to pass it to Wei Luo, who frowned at being handed the incorrect item.

‘Yellow Ear, come back!’ Judge Lu commanded.

The judge retrieved the fan from between the hound’s teeth and returned it to his desk. ‘He likes to choose “presents” for people, and it’s always something strange. Once, when I wrote my elder brother a letter, he insisted that I attach a toothpick. My elder brother wrote back asking why I’d attached that of all things!’ Judge Lu recounted.

Dai Yuan and Wei Luo did their best to restrain their laughter, but were not completely successful. The judge handed Wei Luo the document and dismissed the constable, then removed the canister from Yellow Ear’s neck and opened it. There were two letters and a stack of blank paper in the canister.

Dai Yuan scowled. ‘There’s paper in the tribunal. If you’re honest to the point of deeming using the tribunal’s paper to write personal documents a misuse of public funds, you could ask me to buy paper. There’s no need to ask Shiheng to send you paper!’

‘After that _Three Capitals Rhapsody_ of Zuo Taichong’s 左太沖 which can’t be used to seal wine jugs came out, good paper is both expensive and difficult to obtain![22] ’ Dai Yuan faintly heard Judge Lu grumbling under his breath.

Seeing Dai Yuan still scowling, the judge asked, ‘Didn’t you say that you had an errand to run for the commandant?’

‘You’re just unhappy that I’m looking at you with the expression Shiheng probably had when he saw your letter!’ Dai Yuan grinned. ‘All right, I won’t irk you anymore.’

‘Urf! Urf! Urf!’ Several muffled barks sounded after Dai Yuan had left on his errand. Turning his attention to Yellow Ear, Judge Lu saw that the hound had picked up the fan between his teeth once more and wanted to hand it to the judge this time.

‘I know that fan is an important clue, but I can’t figure out who it belongs to, just as I don’t understand what’s hidden in that mind of yours!’ Judge Lu exclaimed as he took the fan from Yellow Ear. ‘Wait…hidden…’

A sequence of thoughts flit through the judge’s mind. What had they said about the painting? ‘So that’s why!’ he finally exclaimed.

A few minutes later, he strode towards the commandant’s office to instruct him to make an arrest.

*

‘You arrested Gao Shi’s wife?’ Dai Yuan asked the instant he returned to the magistrate’s private office a while later.

‘Yes,’ Judge Lu confirmed.

‘It doesn’t add up.’ Dai Yuan voiced his doubts. ‘Consider the murder instrument. A weak woman wouldn’t use a heavy stone to commit the crime—she would use a lighter weapon that she could handle with ease.’

Lin Yan presented himself as Dai Yuan was about to continue.

‘Your Honour, a girl named Zhang Fangfang 張芳芳 requests an audience. She says that she is Gao Shi’s neighbour and that she can testify that Madam Gao-Liang has an alibi,’ he reported.

The judge summoned Zhang Fangfang to his private office. She was the girl whom Judge Lu and Dai Yuan had encountered consoling Gao Shi’s wife the previous day.

‘Your Honour, I can bear witness that Elder Sister Xuanxuan is innocent,’ Zhang Fangfang asserted after she had paid obeisance to the judge. ‘I heard on the street that Elder Brother Ah Shi’s boat was not seen the day before his body was found, hence his murder must have happened at night. However, that night, my younger brother had a high fever and I stayed up the entire night to care for him—he’s only three years old. I saw Elder Sister Xuanxuan entering her house at twilight from the window of my room. She didn’t leave the house until the next morning—I would have heard and seen if she’d done so.’

Mentally recalling the layout of the two houses, Judge Lu agreed that Zhang Fangfang’s argument was valid.

‘Noted. Has your younger brother’s fever subsided?’

‘It did, yesterday afternoon, Your Honour.’

The judge enquired about the living standard in Zhang Fangfang’s village, then let the girl go, assuring her that he would not wrong an innocent as she took her leave.

After Zhang Fangfang had departed, Judge Lu turned to reply to Dai Yuan. ‘Before you came, I already knew that Madam Gao-Liang was not the murderer. I arrested her in order to lure out the perpetrator,’ he reassured Dai Yuan. After a pause, he continued, ‘The medical books I requested from Luoyang regarding Cold Food Powder should arrive after ten or so days. At that time, we should be able to apprehend the murderer.’

*

Judge Lu and Dai Yuan busied themselves with other matters of the tribunal in the ensuing days. While valiantly attempting to clear items from his to-do list more quickly than they were added, Dai Yuan glimpsed Bian Pei strolling outdoors, his hair bound into a knot and fastened with a cap, as proper, this time. He also heard that Wang Ye was working irregularly again, and that one of the three ferrymen at the river crossing at the intersection of the Bian Canal and the Langdang Canal had come upstream to do business.

*

In the morning thirteen days after Madam Gao-Liang’s arrest, the medical books that Judge Lu had requested were delivered.

‘Ruosi, let’s see if what you’ve heard about Cold Food Powder is true,’ the judge invited, laying the books out on his desk.

Dai Yuan perused the chapter titles on the outside of each scroll and picked out the chapter entitled _Various illnesses that may result from not observing the rules of consumption of Cold Food Powder_ of Huangfu Mi’s _Discourse on the Cold Food Powder Formula_ 《論寒食散方》. The first sentence read: ‘Below are fifty-one illnesses that are known may arise.’ He thought a headache was starting to form as he viewed the scroll without even carefully reading it yet.

Focussing his attention, he skimmed the chapter. Much of it sounded nasty but was irrelevant to the case. Suddenly, he saw the words ‘…anxiety and rage; panic, trance-like conditions, absentmindedness that may lead to mistakes…’. He pointed out the text to Judge Lu.

‘Hmmm…’

Dai Yuan blinked as he tried to concentrate on the text again.

‘Getting a headache from reading the treatise?’ the judge asked, observing Dai Yuan’s frequent blinking.

‘Yes. Aren’t you?’

‘No. All right, busy yourself with some other errand for the morning,’ Judge Lu responded understandingly as he continued reading the first chapter.

Dai Yuan arrived back at the tribunal as the judge was closing the afternoon session of court. As Judge Lu and he retreated to the magistrate’s private office, he perceived that the judge had put aside Huangfu Mi’s _Discourse_ , presumably having finished reading it.

‘What else did the treatise say?’ Dai Yuan enquired.

‘I’ve learnt quite a bit,’ Judge Lu replied. ‘It turns out that although one of the rules of taking Cold Food Powder is to consume cold food—hence its name—to offset its heating effect, one should drink hot wine, and frequently at that. You’ve wronged Bian Pei in this respect. The deceased Minister of Works 司空 Pei Xiu 裴秀 once drank cold wine after consuming Cold Food Powder. Because he was one of the Three Ducal Ministers 三公, his servants did not dare to point out his misstep, but just used cold water to bathe him. This rescue method was correct, but the servants went to the extent of bathing him with several hundred _shi_ 石[23] of water! This great cartographer who described the six principles of cartography and made the grand collection _Maps of the Regions in ‘Tribute of Yu’_  《禹貢地域圖》[24] died of the cold. Alas! Bian Pei’s steward admonished him against weeping or being depressed; those are also rules that one is supposed to follow when taking Cold Food Powder.’

At this moment, the jail warden’s wife arrived, having been summoned by the judge minutes ago. She was in charge of the female prisoners and detainees.

‘How is Madam Gao-Liang?’ Judge Lu asked.

‘The same as before, Your Honour. Seeing that she really isn’t feeling well, I reminded her that Your Honour had permitted her to be seen by a physician if she wished, but she declined once more, simply repeating that she was innocent and enquiring when she could be released,’ the jail warden’s wife answered.

‘Noted. Inform the jail warden that she may be released,’ the judge said.

After the jail warden’s wife had left, Judge Lu briefed Dai Yuan on a task he had for the latter.

‘Arf! Arf!’ Yellow Ear barked after Dai Yuan had departed.

The judge patted the hound. ‘I know you’d like to go on a hunt, Yellow Ear, but now’s not the time. I’ll bring you out after this case has been resolved.’

*

A little more than an hour later, Dai Yuan arrived back at the tribunal with Gao Shi’s wife and Wei Luo, both of whom had their hands bound with rope. It took even Judge Lu a few seconds to recognize Dai Yuan with his blackened face, undone hair and tattered attire. There was a faint look of disbelief in Dai Yuan’s eyes. A large crowd had gathered behind him at the entrance of the tribunal to witness this peculiar sight.

‘What’s going on?’ the county commandant queried.

‘After releasing Madam Gao-Liang, I instructed Dai Yuan to tail her secretly, informing him that before going ten _li_ 里[25] , there would be a man waiting to speak to her, and commanding him to arrest them.’ The judge reassured the crowd that Dai Yuan had been acting under his orders. ‘Detain Madam Gao-Liang and Wei Luo, and search Wei Luo’s home! Also summon the ferryman Wang Ye to the tribunal.’

Before long, the commandant returned with numerous bolts of top-quality Shu 蜀 silk and Judge Lu began the evening session of the tribunal.

‘Wei Luo, you are charged with committing adultery with the wife of the ferryman Gao Shi and murdering Gao Shi,’ the judge declared.

‘The bolts of silk were discovered in my house. But what evidence is there that I committed adultery with Gao Shi’s wife?’ Wei Luo replied stonily.

‘Even now, after the two of you were caught together, you still hope that she will not be convicted. Fine. This is how I knew that Madam Gao-Liang was engaged in an adulterous relationship,’ Judge Lu replied, tossing the fan before the couple kneeling before him. ‘Wei Luo, you dropped this fan in Gao Shi’s boat when you committed the murder. On one side, the caption reads “Eternally sustaining life / True beauty never altering”; it is a line from Zuo Si’s _Wei Capital Rhapsody_. On the other side, the caption reads “A fairy with me wandering / Beholding always vistas great”; it is a line from Yang Xiong’s 揚雄 _Rhapsody on the Supreme Arcane and Profound_ 《太玄賦》[26]. Initially, I thought the fact that the painting corresponding to the former text shows the intersection of two rivers instead of just the Zhang River passing by Ye was an understandable mistake for a native of Junyi, but it was in fact intentional. You wanted to hint not at the Wei capital of the Three Kingdoms, but instead the Wei capital of the Warring States period—Daliang! Put together, this gives the name of Gao Shi’s wife: Liang Xuanxuan!’

Madam Gao-Liang gasped. Tears welled from her eyes.

‘Gao Shi was a pragmatic man. He would not have given his wife a fancy but impractical ornament, let alone a whimsical, romantic present,’ the judge continued. ‘Therefore, the fan must be a gift from an adulterous lover!

‘As for the reason why you committed the murder, which will simultaneously prove definitively Madam Gao-Liang’s adultery: Madam Gao-Liang is pregnant. Gao Shi knew before he left that his wife was not pregnant. If he discovered that his wife showed signs of pregnancy when he returned, your affair would be discovered. This is also the reason why Madam Gao-Liang declined to see a physician while in prison: she was afraid that the physician would be able to tell for how long she had been pregnant. Do I still need to call for a physician?’ Judge Lu asked severely.

‘I confess,’ Wei Luo uttered subduedly. He shared a resigned glance with Gao Shi’s wife. ‘I killed Gao Shi because Xuanxuan had discovered that she was pregnant, and Gao Shi would certainly know from the timing that the child was not his. The punishment for adultery is not at all light, and the baby means a lot to me.’

‘Before he left, my husband told me that he would return at nightfall because it takes a day to come upstream from the nearest river crossing along the Sui River,’ Madam Gao-Liang continued. Wei Luo gasped upon hearing her speak up, then shook his head dolefully as he apprehended that she did not intend to let him shoulder sole culpability for the murder. ‘He stopped to replenish food there every time he went down the Sui River. Because he would be carrying a large quantity of silk with him, he would spend the night on the boat to safeguard it. That’s how we came up with the plan to kill him at the riverbank, before he could come home.’

‘I thought I would have to go to the river crossing to check if Gao Shi had returned for quite a few nights. He returned the first night,’ Wei Luo disclosed with an ironic smile. ‘The rest, Your Honour knows. I accidentally dropped the fan I had intended to give Xuanxuan in the boat. The body floated to the river crossing downstream, where it got caught at the sluice gate. Today, I made another mistake. Hearing that Xuanxuan had been released, I wanted to speak with her to ensure that she was all right. I didn’t dare to speak with her in the vicinity of the tribunal, so I went to our regular meeting place further away. Who would expect that Dai Yuan had been tailing her, and in disguise, moreover?’

The scribe read out the couple’s confession. Wei Luo and Madam Gao-Liang confirmed that it was accurate, then affixed their thumbprints to the document. As they were led back to the jail to await confirmation of the death sentence by the imperial court, Madam Gao-Liang reached for the fan, but it was snatched away by a guard. The judge regretted that Madam Gao-Liang could not retain the fan as it had to be filed in the case dossier. To others, the fan was merely evidence, but to Madam Gao-Liang, it was precious. It encapsulated the reason for her adultery, wrong as it was.

Judge Lu then had Wang Ye brought before him and interrogated the ferryman regarding the discrepancy between his and his neighbour’s statements. Unable to justify his actions in a manner that would match his previous testimony, Wang Ye admitted, ‘At twilight, when I was about to head home, I discovered that a part of my boat needed to be repaired. I attempted to repair it immediately, as I wanted to do as much business as possible before Gao Shi returned. Just before night fell, I finished repairing the boat, and at the same time saw Gao Shi’s boat in the distance. I figured that I wouldn’t have any business the following day, so I went gambling. Everyone knows that I was unhappy that Gao Shi had far more business than me. When Gao Shi came back, everyone in the neighbourhood would already have been at home; I was the only one who still hadn’t returned home. I feared that if I admitted that I had seen Gao Shi returning, I would be the clear suspect. I thought that if I claimed not to have seen Gao Shi, I could save myself some trouble—the difference was as small as whether or not I had looked in the distance before I returned home.’

‘Wang Ye, you gave false testimony to the magistrate when he was investigating a case. You will be given ten strokes of the cane as punishment,’ the judge decreed. It was a light punishment, but would serve the important purpose of deterring innocents from giving false testimony to protect their image in future.

*

‘Everyone outside is praising your brilliance in suspecting that the murderer could be someone else apart from Wang Ye, and in luring out the man with whom Madam Gao-Liang was having an affair,’ Dai Yuan mentioned to Judge Lu in the privacy of the magistrate’s office after the court session had ended. ‘They don’t know that we were certain that Wang Ye was not the murderer once I had heard his description of the flood control systems in the area! How could he not think of the fact that the sluice gate might be shut at this time of the year and that the body could be hooked by its protruding nails? On the other hand, it would never have occurred to me that Madam Gao-Liang was pregnant! Nor would I have thought that her tears were feigned!’

‘You don’t have a wife. Of course you wouldn’t have noticed the beginning signs of pregnancy.’ The judge teased Dai Yuan. ‘Initially, I thought that not having borne a child before, she hadn’t realised that she might be pregnant. It would have been inappropriate for me as a man other than her husband or a physician to mention it to her, hence I hinted that she should consider seeing a physician. However, Wang Ye later revealed that she had had a child before. She would certainly recognise the symptoms. Together with the deduction that she was having an affair, that provided the motive for the murder. As for her tears, I believe she truly felt remorse that her and Wei Luo’s mistake caused them to murder Gao Shi, who in his own way had tried to be a good husband.’ Judge Lu mulled over the irony that the law against adultery, which should have worked in favour of Gao Shi, had instead contributed to his death.

Dai Yuan mused that even such knowledge which he had previously deemed entirely optional was still useful for a magistrate to possess.

‘There’s never an end to what one has to learn to be a good administrator,’ the judge sighed with feeling, as though he had read Dai Yuan’s thoughts. As Dai Yuan raised his head back to face Judge Lu, the judge continued, ‘After reading Huangfu Mi’s _Discourse on the Cold Food Powder Formula_ , I realised that our previous knowledge about the drug was extremely limited. If we had known more, we would not have suspected Bian Pei to begin with. When taking Cold Food Powder to treat a febrile disease, one should consume only one dose, then follow the rules of consuming the powder for the next twenty days to a month, after which, if all goes well, the disease will have been cured. If one wishes to use the powder again, one should ensure that a few years have passed since the last time one took it—this is a measure of its potency. The numerous side effects of Cold Food Powder of which we have heard are probably due not only to its strength, but also due to its misuse. The Cold Food Powder that He Yan took was not the original Marquis’ Black Powder 侯氏黑散 or Fluorite Formula 紫石英方 that the sage physician Zhang Zhongjing 張仲景 invented to treat strokes and febrile diseases respectively. He combined and modified ingredients of the two prescriptions, adding to the four minerals that formed part of the Fluorite Formula a fifth, sulphur, thus giving the new drug its alternate name, Five Minerals Powder. Later, a physician, Song Shang 宋尚, gave He Yan’s drug another name: Life-Protecting Five Minerals Powder 五石護命散, and claimed that it could cure manifold diseases! No wonder Huangfu Mi was led to conclude, “The physicians of today have not Hua Tuo’s 華佗[27] skill nor Zhongjing’s acumen, yet they prescribe a drug of such potency, causing such torment, the number of premature deaths they have caused is beyond count!”

‘Earlier, we thought that given the prevalence of side effects of Cold Food Powder, Bian Pei would invariably suffer from some. Having read Huangfu Mi’s treatise, I discovered that Bian Pei’s recovery seems to have been remarkably successful—he did not show signs of the numerous side effects that could arise. Presumably, this is due to rigorous observation of the rules of consuming the powder; perhaps the prescription he followed was the original Fluorite Formula and he was fortunate to meet a good physician. What degree of restraint one requires to follow the multifarious rules strictly! Bian Pei genuinely understands what is truly important and what is less so. I can only repeat what I said to you previously: this drug can cause numerous side effects—be cautious of and when using it! Hopefully, having followed the rules of consuming Cold Food Powder for a month, Bian Pei has recovered and will never need to use the drug again, nor will his consumption of it pose him trouble in future. In any case, we need to return him the bolts of silk—let’s pay him a visit to see if he’s recovered fully.

‘Oh, yes,’ Judge Lu added to Dai Yuan as the two exited the office, ‘our friend He Yanxian 賀彦先 has been sickly from young. It would be calamitous if a charlatan were to prescribe him Cold Food Powder. Your calligraphy is good—help me copy Huangfu Mi’s _Discourse_ to warn him about the harm that this drug can cause, would you? That’ll help you force yourself to read it in its entirety!’

*

On a morning of a long weekend some days later, Judge Lu, Dai Yuan and Yellow Ear made their way to the river crossing south of the city.

‘We’ve spent long enough in and around the city. It’s time we see how the peasants in the countryside fare,’ the judge remarked.

‘Arf!’

‘We’re extremely early. The ferryman who lives downstream hasn’t arrived yet,’ Dai Yuan observed, seeing only one boat present. ‘I hear he’s planning to move upstream permanently.’

‘Let’s call on Wang Ye,’ Judge Lu responded.

Wang Ye gave a gasp of alarm upon seeing the judge and Dai Yuan. ‘We’re here on personal business today,’ Judge Lu reassured the ferryman, who relaxed visibly. ‘How much would it cost for you to fetch us to the official river crossing?’

Wang Ye considered for several seconds. The judge recognised that he was contemplating whether or not to compensate for the previous days’ lack of business by charging the magistrate a steep fee. Indeed, the ferryman steeled himself, then quoted his usual inflated fare.

‘How much would Gao Shi have charged?’ Judge Lu enquired sternly.

The ten strokes of the cane he had received were fresh in the ferryman’s mind. Lowering his head, he stammered a much lower price.

‘Do you know how much it would cost to hire an ox wagon to fetch us to the official river crossing?’ the judge asked. Seeing the ferryman shake his head, Judge Lu disclosed a rate closer to Gao Shi’s fare.

‘Ruosi, go find a coachman to bring us to the official river crossing, preferably one sociable, who knows tales about the land and water in between. If we find a good coachman, we can recommend him to others,’ the judge instructed Dai Yuan.

‘Your Honour, I know many stories about the waterways nearby. You can ask Officer Dai if you don’t believe me!’ Wang Ye blurted as he comprehended the true purport of Judge Lu’s words. How could he let this golden opportunity go? Just a word or two in fairness from the magistrate would go far towards improving his reputation! ‘I’ll charge the same fare as Gao Shi. Will that do?’

‘Wang Ye does know a lot,’ Dai Yuan confirmed as the judge directed him a questioning glance.

‘Arf!’

‘All right then, we’ll go with you,’ Judge Lu told the ferryman as he led Yellow Ear onto the boat.

Wang Ye dutifully related tales about the canals as the boat made its way upstream. Seeing the judge smiling broadly as he played with Yellow Ear, the ferryman enquired after finishing a long story, ‘Your Honour, is it true that Officer Dai used to be a river pirate captain?’

‘Yes,’ Judge Lu replied. The judge discerned that his confirmation had stirred deep feelings within Wang Ye. ‘Have you heard of a scholar called Huangfu Mi?’

‘No, Your Honour. Why do you ask?’

‘Huangfu Mi was a great-grandson of Grand Commandant 太尉 Huangfu Song 皇甫嵩 of the late Han. His branch of the family had gone into decline and were farmers. Until the age of twenty, he disliked studying and loafed about; some even thought he was an idiot. Once, he obtained a melon, which he gave to his paternal aunt, who was his foster mother. His paternal aunt said, “You have no sense of ethics and morals. Nothing you give me can console me. Wanting you to cultivate your moral character and study is for your own benefit; what good is it to me?” Huangfu Mi was very moved by his aunt’s words. From then on, he studied fervently, to the extent that he earned the nickname “Indulger in books 書淫”. Later, he became one of the great scholars of our time,’ Judge Lu narrated. Turning towards Dai Yuan, he commented, ‘Continue working hard and don’t cause your family any more grief. I’ll see if I can get the Grand Administrator of Guangling 廣陵 to nominate you as a Filial and Incorrupt 孝廉[28].’

Dai Yuan observed the true target of the judge’s story giving him a wide smile of encouragement. ‘I will,’ he replied with a nod and smile.

‘Arf!’

Judge Lu mentally leafed through his collection of anecdotes. Zhou Chu’s 周處 story would be another good one to tell…

*

Eight days later, Yellow Ear delivered another letter to Judge Lu’s brother.

_Yun bows again: A murder occurred in which the populace all suspected the perpetrator wrongly, but I solved the case. Yellow Ear has excellent intuition as to good courses of action, but it wasn’t very deferential of him to beat me in uncovering the murderer! Ruosi and I have put in order the mess that the previous magistrate left behind, but I feel that I’m not doing as good a job as Father would have done. We visited the ruins of the Yi Gate a few days ago and the official river crossing where the Battle of Guandu was fought yesterday. Attached is a souvenir, courtesy of Yellow Ear. Ruosi’s younger brother Miao will probably like his better. I’ve finally had some free time to write a few poems and am somewhat rusty. If you would help me embellish them slightly, they may yet be fine pieces. Please do take note. It’s no wonder you’re fatigued if you write so much. Do take care of yourself. Respectfully yours._

* * *

[1] Cao Zhi’s final enfeoffment was as Prince of Chen, and he was given the posthumous title ‘Thoughtful’.

[2] AD 196–220. The Jian’an period is known in literature for its poetic developments. Jian’an literally means ‘Establishing Peace’.

[3] ‘Elder Sister-in-law’ here is a case of fictive kinship. Other cases of fictive kinship will be apparent from the characters’ differing surnames.

[4] All ages in this story are according to East Asian age reckoning.

[5] 225 BC.

[6] Reigned 1 BC–AD 6. The posthumous title Ping means ‘peaceful’.

[7] Reigned AD 57–75. The posthumous title Ming means ‘understanding’. Wang Jing repaired the flood control systems of the Yellow River and the Bian Canal in AD 69–70.

[8] Guandu literally means ‘official river crossing’, as opposed to private river crossings 私渡, which were operated by private individuals.

[9] During the Jin dynasty, the working week was five days long, followed by a one-day weekend.

[10] The Chinese notion of spring is defined to begin on the solar term _lìchūn_ 立春 (literally ‘start of spring’), when the sun is at a celestial longitude of 315° (falls between 3–5 February), and end on the solar term _lìxià_ 立夏 (literally ‘start of summer’), when the sun is at a celestial longitude of 45° (falls between 5–7 May).

[11] ‘Country bumpkin’ was a pejorative used by Southerners to refer to Northerners during the Jin dynasty and Southern and Northern dynasties 南北朝 in China.

[12] A Chinese inch was equal to approximately 2.42 cm during the Western Jin dynasty.

[13] Ancient Chinese divided the night, which lasted from 7 pm to 5 am, into five watches, each lasting two hours.

[14] The posthumous title of Sima Yan 司馬炎, the founding emperor of the Jin dynasty.

[15] Better known in English as the _Daodejing_ 《道德經》.

[16] AD 240–249.

[17] A _fú_ 符, ‘tally’, was an object sometimes carved in the likeness of an animal, usually split into two matching parts, which were used as credentials. The left piece would be held by the local officer in charge of verifying credentials, while the right piece would be held by the officer to whom the relevant authority had been delegated. The former would check that the pieces of the tally fit together before allowing the latter to proceed.

[18] In the game of pitch-pot, one attempted to throw arrows into a vase from a distance.

[19] This type of debate about _xuánxué_ 玄學, ‘arcane and profound learning’, which attempted to use Daoist concepts to give new meaning to Confucian texts, was known as _qīngtán_ 清談, ‘pure conversation’. Unfortunately, a literal translation of the term is incomprehensible if one does not know its relation to _xuánxué_ , so I have had to paraphrase. A very readable introduction to _xuánxué_ is available here: <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neo-daoism/>.

[20] Drinking wine was associated with feasting, which was deemed to be incongruous with mourning.

[21] ‘Raccoon dog’ was a pejorative used by Northerners to refer to Southerners during the Jin dynasty and Southern and Northern dynasties in China.

[22] The _Three Capitals Rhapsody_ was highly praised by the top literati of Luoyang after it was completed. Consequently, the powerful and rich copied it from one another, causing paper to become expensive in Luoyang. This is the origin of the Chinese idiom 洛陽紙貴 ‘paper is expensive in Luoyang’, used to describe a work’s extensive popularity and circulation.

[23] A _shí_ was a unit of volume equal to approximately 20.5 litres during the Jin dynasty. (It was also a unit of mass.) The modern pronunciation is _dàn_.

[24] _Tribute of Yu_ was a chapter in the _Book of Xia_ 《夏書》part of the _Book of Documents_ 《尚書》.

[25] A _lǐ_ was a unit of length equal to approximately 0.436 kilometres during the Western Jin dynasty.

[26] Yang Xiong’s _Rhapsody on the Supreme Arcane and Profound_ is believed to be spurious. It is preserved only in the _Garden of Ancient Literature_ 《古文苑》, an anthology of literature attributed to the Tang dynasty but likely compiled in the eleventh century.

[27] Hua Tuo and Zhang Zhongjing were two of the most outstanding physicians of the late Han dynasty. Hua Tuo was noted for his proficiency in surgery and anesthesia, while Zhang Zhongjing was recognised for his expertise in the usage of medicine.

[28] ‘Filial and Incorrupt’ was a criterion for nomination for civil service.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See the next chapter for the true events upon which this story is based.
> 
> Lu Yun’s replies to Bian Pei’s quotations from the _Laozi_ are taken from Wang Bi’s commentary to the _Laozi_ , because the author has no skill in this type of elegant discourse. ;)
> 
> The locations of the river crossings are fictional. However, it is known that the Battle of Guandu took place in the vicinity of the site marked on the sketch map.
> 
> The hometown of Wang Wu 王吴, an official who repaired the flood control systems together with Wang Jing, is not known. The detail that he was a Southerner is fictional.
> 
> The information about Cold Food Powder is taken from Yu Jiaxi’s 余嘉錫 comprehensive essay _Hanshisan kao_ 《寒食散考》 ‘An Examination of Cold Food Powder’. I have taken artistic licence in arranging that Dai Yuan would not see the information mentioned by Lu Yun when reading about illnesses that could result from not observing the rules of consumption of Cold Food Powder.
> 
> The last two chapters contain historical information (in Chinese) related to the story which is harder to find and in which some readers may be interested.


	4. True Events

> _俄以公府掾爲太子舍人，出補浚儀令。縣居都會之要，名爲難理。雲到官肅然，下不能欺，市無二價。人有見殺者，主名不立，雲録其妻，而無所問。十許日遣出，密令人隨後，謂曰：「其去不出十里，當有男子候之與語，便縛來。」既而果然。問之具服，云：「與此妻通，共殺其夫，聞妻得出，欲與語，憚近縣，故遠相要候。」於是一縣稱其神明。郡守害其能，屢譴責之，雲乃去官。百姓追思之，圖畫形象，配食縣社。_

——《晋書·卷五十四·列傳第二十四·陸雲傳》

> _[Lu Yun] served briefly in the capacity of a government official as part of the Crown Prince’s staff, then left the capital to take the position of magistrate of Junyi. The county was an important city and was notorious for being hard to govern. When Yun arrived, all was made orderly, subordinates could not deceive their superiors and goods were priced fairly. A murder was committed for which a suspect could not be determined. Yun arrested the victim’s wife but did not interrogate her. After ten or so days, he released her and had her tailed in secret, instructing, ‘When she has gone no more than ten_ li _, there will be a man waiting to speak with her—arrest him.’ All transpired as predicted. After the couple was interrogated, they confessed to the crime and the man explained, ‘I had an affair with the victim’s wife and we killed her husband. Hearing that she had been released, I wished to speak with her but was afraid to approach the government office, hence awaited her further away.’ Thus the county deemed Yun brilliant. The Grand Administrator of the commandry was jealous and resentful of his ability and reprimanded him frequently, therefore Yun left his post. The people missed him and made portraits of him, to which they presented offerings in temples housing the god of the earth._

—Lu Yun’s biography in the _Book of Jin_


	5. 後事

葛洪《抱樸子外篇》：嵇君道曰：「吾在洛與二陸雕施如意，兄弟並能觀況身於泥蜯之中，識清意於未□之□，諸談客與二陸言者，辭少理暢，語約事舉，莫不豁然。若春日之泮薄冰，秋風之掃枯葉。」【《北堂書鈔》九十八。】

　　抱樸子曰：「秦時不覺無鼻之醜，陽翟憎無癭之人。陸君深疾文士放蕩流遁，遂往不爲虛誕之言，非不能也。陸君之文，猶玄圃之積玉，無非夜光。吾生之不别陸文，猶侏儒測海，非所長也。卻後數百年，若有幹跡如二陸，猶比肩也，不謂疎矣！」【《意林》，《北堂書鈔》一百，《太平御覽》五百九十九。】

*

《晋書·卷五十七·列傳第二十七·吾彦傳》：帝嘗問彦：「陸喜、陸抗二人誰多也？」彦對曰：「道德名望，抗不及喜；立功立事，喜不及抗。」

……

　　會交州刺史陶璜卒，以彦爲南中都督、交州刺史。重餉陸機兄弟，機將受之，雲曰：「彦本微賤，爲先公所拔，而答詔不善，安可受之！」機乃止。因此每毀之。

《晋書·卷五十二·列傳第二十二·華譚傳》：戴若思弟邈，則譚女婿也。譚平生時常抑若思而進邈，若思每銜之。殆用事，恒毀譚於帝，由是官塗不至。

*

陸雲《與楊彦命書七首》：戴會稽〖淵父昌。〗如是便發，分别恨然。一時名士，唯當有此君耳。失分重勞，令人歎息。善得日夕，真家人。若思、望之，〖戴邈字。〗清才俊類，一時之彦，善並得接。

陸雲《與戴季甫書七首》：近聞若思未有通塗，每用於邑。

*

陸雲《與兄平原書》：近日復案行曹公〖曹操。〗器物，取其剔齒纎一箇，今以送兄。

*

陸雲《與兄平原書》：頃借其〖崔君苗。〗《釋詢》二十七卷，當欲百余紙寫之。不知兄盡有不？

……

　　前集兄文爲二十卷，適訖一十，當黄之。書不工，紙又惡，恨不精。

*

《晋書·卷六十八·列傳第三十八·賀循傳》：及陳敏之亂，詐稱詔書，以循爲丹楊内史。循辭以脚疾，手不制筆，又服寒食散，露髮袒身，示不可用，敏竟不敢逼。

*

《晋書·卷六·帝紀第六·元帝紀》：〖永昌元年四月〗丙子，〖前文云「辛未，大赦」，四月無辛未、丙子日。《天文志下》云王敦殺周顗、戴若思事在三月，永昌元年三月丙子即公元322年4月25日，或是。〗驃騎將軍、秣陵侯戴若思，尚書左仆射、護軍將軍、武城侯周顗爲〖王〗敦所害。

《晋書·卷六十九·列傳第三十九·戴若思傳》：敦參軍吕猗昔爲臺郎，有刀筆才，性尤奸諂，若思爲尚書，惡其爲人，猗亦深憾焉。至是，乃説敦曰：「周顗、戴若思皆有高名，足以惑衆，近者之言曾無愧色。公若不除，恐有再舉之患，爲將來之憂耳。」敦以爲然，又素忌之，俄而遣鄧嶽、繆坦收若思而害之。若思素有重望，四海之士莫不痛惜焉。

《晋書·卷六十九·列傳第三十九·周顗傳》：初，敦之舉兵也，劉隗勸帝盡除諸王，司空〖王〗導率群從詣闕請罪，值顗將入，導呼顗謂曰：「伯仁，以百口累卿！」顗直入不顧。既見帝，言導忠誠，申救甚至，帝納其言。顗喜飲酒，致醉而出。導猶在門，又呼顗。顗不與言，顧左右曰：「今年殺諸賊奴，取金印如斗大繫肘。」既出，又上表明導，言甚切至。導不知救己，而甚銜之。敦既得志，問導曰：「周顗、戴若思南北之望，當登三司，無所疑也。」導不答。又曰：「若不三司，便應令仆邪？」又不答。敦曰：「若不爾，正當誅爾。」導又無言。導後料檢中書故事，見顗表救己，殷勤款至。導執表流涕，悲不自勝，告其諸子曰：「吾雖不殺伯仁，伯仁由我而死。幽冥之中，負此良友！」


	6. 時間考證

### 《陸士龍文集校注·附録·陸士龍年譜》：

**元康元年（公元二九一）。雲三十歲，機三十一歲。**

雲遷太子舍人，作《盛德頌》。據《晋書》卷五十四《陸雲傳》：「吳平，入洛。……俄以公府掾爲太子舍人。」可知雲任太子舍人當在入洛不久。武帝于太康十一年正月改元永熙，四月崩，惠帝即位，八月立廣陵王遹爲皇太子，以潘岳爲太子舍人，楊駿輔政，引爲岳太傅主簿。雲任太子舍人必在潘岳之後。惠帝永平元年三月誅楊駿，改元元康。《陸機傳》：「會駿誅，累遷太子洗馬。」機遷太子洗馬當在元康元年三月後。而陸侃如《中古文學繫年》曰：「其舍人疑與機爲洗馬同時。」而雲任太子舍人亦當在元康元年三月之後。

**元康二年（公元二九二）。雲三十一歲，機三十二歲。**

機離洛短暫歸寧，途中做《行思賦》。賦云「眇四載而遠期」，可知此賦所作蓋士衡與弟入洛之四年。上已考，士衡於太康十年與弟雲入洛，至此前後四載。而此賦題爲「行思」，賦中又謂「孰歸寧之弗樂，獨抱感而弗怡」，亦可知此賦作於離洛歸寧途中。今本士衡《思歸賦序》「余牽役京室，去家四載」云云，爲此賦之序，後有脱文，《太平御覽》誤題《歸思賦》序。

由吳返洛途中遇戴淵。《世説新語》卷下《自新》：「戴淵少時遊俠，不治行檢，嘗在江淮間攻掠商旅。陸機赴假還洛，輜重甚盛。淵使少年掠劫。淵在岸上，據胡床，指麾左右，皆得其宜。淵既神姿峰（鋒）穎，雖處鄙事，神氣猶異。機於船屋上遥謂之曰：『卿才如此，亦復作刼邪？』淵便泣涕投劍歸機，辭厲非常，機彌重之，定交，作筆薦焉。過江仕至征西將軍。」若淵見機在其初入洛時，則機不可能「作筆薦焉」，可能是此次由吳入洛，而遇淵，文中亦言「陸機赴假還洛」。故繫於是年。

**元康六年（公元二九六）。雲三十五歲，機三十六歲。**

冬，機遷尚書中兵郎，潘岳代賈謐作《爲賈謐做贈陸機》，機作《答賈謐詩》（《文選》卷二十四作《答賈長淵》）。《答賈謐詩》序曰：「余昔爲太子洗馬，魯公賈長淵以散騎常侍侍東宫積年。余出補吳王郎中令，元康六年入爲尚書郎。魯公贈詩一篇，作此答以云爾。」

雲拜吳王郎中令，作《國起西園第表啓》。《晋書》卷五十四《陸雲傳》：「尋拜吳王晏郎中令。晏於西園大營第室，雲上書。」綜上可知，雲出令當在是年冬，繼兄之任。


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